All Quiet On The DoubleClick Front... Or Not

Not Disclosing Your Pump-And-Dump Past Might Make It Harder To Sell Your Company

from the paper-trail dept

Fri, Apr 13th 2007 1:08pm — Carlo Longino

Breaking securities laws doesn't mean that you can't keep running businesses -- just ask Vonage Chairman Jeffrey Citron. However, if you don't disclose your past to potential buyers of your company and they come to find out your white-collar crime track record, you shouldn't be too surprised if they see it as a turnoff. Rumors popped up yesterday that Yahoo was in talks to buy the Rivals.com network of sports sites for $100 million, with the deal described as "overpriced". However, two previous deals to buy the company are rumored to have fallen apart when suitors discovered Rivals.com's CEO's alleged criminal past as part of a pump-and-dump scam -- something he evidently failed to disclose to them. Hopefully the guy's figured out by now that it really isn't too hard to run de facto background checks on people using the web -- particularly considering it's a search company that's supposed to be the buyer this time around. Update: Apparently the CEO in question disputes these claims and is threatening to sue TechCrunch over the initial posting.

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6 Comments

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Witty Nickname, 13 Apr 2007 @ 1:30pm

Pump and Dump
I wish I knew Pump-and-dump was a crime. Who knew that I could have been arrested every week for the last 3 years at my local Exxon!
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RandomThoughts, 13 Apr 2007 @ 2:02pm

Its funny, Shannon Terry was a journalist who was involved in the pump and dump. Terry received stock worth $850K, the SEC fined her $850K. Some of the people involved paid less in fines than they made. Something seems wrong there.
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anonymous coward, 13 Apr 2007 @ 2:12pm

Officer! I was speeding, please ticket me!

Whatever. It's not his responsibility to confess every sin. What CEO doesn't have something shady in his/her past? Even the CEO of the Catholics (aka the Pope) has a little dirt on the hem of his vestments...
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NWP, 13 Apr 2007 @ 5:34pm

MR. Shannon Terry
Well it seems that this CEO is Mr. Terry and he has sicked his lawyers on www.techcrunch.com for libel for reporting his past SEC investigation and alleged crimes. He turned snitch and then is trying to walk away totally clean. www.techcrunch.com is a good site and their right to freedom of speech needs to be protected. When a company is being sold, just like a house full disclosure should apply. What is Mr.. Terry afraid of?
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- Adam, 16 Apr 2007 @ 9:50am
  
  Re: MR. Shannon Terry
  dude can't you spell?
  
  it's not "sicked", it's "sicced"
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Nick D (profile), 13 Apr 2007 @ 5:35pm

ouch!
Arrington just got hit with a defamation claim by Terry's lawyers.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/13/shannon-terry-is-pissed-off-threatens-lawsuit-against -techcrunch/
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